What should you do when given 72 hours in Copenhagen?
[Wilhem Marstrand, 1836]
Danish art, especially knitters with attitude (not sentimentality).
[Christoffer Eckersberg, 1836]
[Constantin Hansen, 1836]
]Jergen V Sonne, 1848]
[Emilius Barentzen, 1826]
[Berta Wegmann, 1882]
I love this one. She’s definitely had it with the knitting. She’s going to kill anyone who suggests she stops wrecking that ball of wool.
[Frederik Vermehren, 1855]
And this one is quite different: you can see all the details of his worn and mended clothes, plus the novel (to me) way of almost wearing the ball of wool like a medal on his chest.
The SMK is wonderful. There is so much excellent art in lovely surroundings, and no crowds at this time of year. Even in the exhibition of unsettling and spindly Giacometti figures.
Admire Arne Jacobsen’s architecture and design.
His colours, neatness, Ant and Egg and Drop chairs, here in Room 606 which is as it was when the swish SAS hotel opened in 1960 (they let you see it if you ask nicely).
Look at a wall of supermarket carrier bags. The Irma shops were part of the Danish urban landscape but have now nearly all closed.
Amazing to see the designs, logos, signs, neon lights (a hen forever laying eggs), and bags in a colourful tribute to the chain in the Design Museum’s very cheerful exhibition. Indeed, the whole of the Design Museum is brilliant. Of course it is, this is Denmark.
Buns and bakeries. Copenhagen is at peak cult bakery level, and I’m there for it (as they say). Juno the Bakery does the best cardamom buns, but we also managed to get to Hart, Skipper, and Andersen and Maillard.
Walking the length and breadth of the city requires fuel.
Plus plain, calm churches, tasty smørrebrøds (I’ve always wanted to type the ø), the tidy, clean metro and its mod stations, the Kartoffelraækkerne (I also like typing the æ)
and deciding that a house in the ‘Potato Rows’ would be ideal when I relocate.
We came back to Stansted - all grubby carpets and overcrowded escalators and grim, unwelcoming, falling-apart fittings - lamenting the enormous contrast between that and Copenhagen airport - all dark wood floors, fresh, modern fittings, spaciousness, and even a huge glass installation.
I liked Copenhagen a lot. Small enough to criss-cross on a daily basis, great cycling and public transport, clean, well-maintained, big parks, small coffee shops, best bread, unshowy, in great working order, and excellent vowels.
Glædelig søndag!
How I look forward to my weekly travels with you! Seeing galleries and places I will never go is a delicious Sunday morning treat. The knitters….. who cannot relate to the “I’ll stab you in the eye with these needles if you say one more word” look… she must’ve had four children and a husband asking those three dreaded words “what’s for supper?” 🤣
Looks like another place to add to my list of places to visit! Love the Berta Wegmann. Thank you.